News by Numbers - November 27th, 2017

By Nick Vigdahl27 Nov 20170

Welcome to this week's edition of News by Numbers, where we highlight some of the can't-miss mobile gaming news each and every week.

Eight-Minute Empire: version 1.1.0

Quick-to-play exploration and civilization building game Eight Minute Empire just came out this fall and the latest version unlocks the Old Europe map, free of charge, for everybody. It also lets you join any room and play an online game, regardless of whether you own the map being used, and lets you hit "Play Again" to get right back into a game once one finishes.

Card City Nights 2: version 1.2.4

Card City Nights 2 has been out three weeks and just fixed one of my niggling complaints. The screen rotation is now fixed. This isn't a big deal for most, but if you play on an iPad Pro using the smart keyboard it sure can be! Check out my four-star review for more on the game.

Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest: 3-color Planeswalker

Match three meets Magic in Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest,and the most recent update adds a first ever for the game. The Elder Dragon, Nicol Bolas, has arrived and is the first three-color Planeswalker in the game. A master at Blue, Black, and Red magic, Nicol Bolas has the ability to destroy enemy creatures, summon zombies, and deal massive damage to your opponent.

Magic: The Gathering Arena: December 4th

Want more Magic news? Magic: The Gathering's latest foray into the digital realm, Arena, is gaining speed with Wizards of the Coast's announcement of the closed beta starting on December 4. All of the game's alpha testers will be asked back along with small but growing waves of new beta testers, starting with those who have priority access (basically anybody who's attended sanctioned M:TG events or played Magic Online or Duels). The closed beta will run every day—the alpha was just on weekends—and will feature only Constructed matches using Ixalan cards. It's all still on PC for now but one would have to assume Magic: The Gathering Arena will make it to mobile sooner than later. If you missed Wizards' Arena stream here it is in all its glory.

Sage Solitaire: 4 new bets

Zach Gage recently released Flipflop Solitaire, a fun take on the genre. It wasn't his first pass at redefining solitaire, however -- that was Sage Solitaire [Android] which is just as fun and also well worth a look. It just got an update and version 1.1.1 adds four more high-tier bets at 10K, 25K, 50K, and 100K. These bets add quite a bit of challenge for Sage Solitaire pros and it's great to see continued support for the game.

Minecraft Pocket Edition Aquatic Update: Spring 2018

There's a huge update coming to all versions of Minecraft next spring. "Update Aquatic" will change how oceans look and play and add things like shipwrecks to explore and underwater treasure to seek. There will also be a new trident weapon that can be thrown, helpful dolphins, and even aquariums. Check out the announcement below from the 2017 MINECON Earth hosted by... Will Arnett? Really?. (Will Arnett should host everything -ED)

That's all for this week's news blast - let us know if you've spotted anything else of note!